A motorist is warning drivers who use Reading station car park to beware after he was overcharged more than £50 by a faulty ticket machine.

Jamie Armstrong only spotted the mistake when he was checking his bank statement three weeks later. And the marketing manager said staff indicated it was a common problem when he phoned management to complain.

Mr Armstrong said he parked his car at the station on Friday, June 25, but when he went to pay at the machine it spat out his card saying payment was not accepted. So he went to the kiosk to pay with his card.

The same thing happened again the following Monday but this time Mr Armstrong tried the machine twice before giving up and again going to pay at the kiosk.

It was three weeks later when Mr Armstrong was casually looking through his bank statements that he noticed two amounts of £16.70 had been taken on the first occasion and three lots of £18.60 had been taken the second time, making a total overpayment of £53.90.

He said: “I phoned up on the Saturday to say I had been overcharged and I was told, ‘We’ve been having a lot of this’, and was told to phone again on Monday and to speak to the manager.

“I phoned back and spoke to the manager who was less than apologetic in his tone.

“He explained it had been a problem and said I would have to send a copy of my bank statement to the claims department where they would decide if I was due a refund, in which case they would send a cheque.”

Mr Armstrong, from Belmont Road, West Reading, requested the money to be refunded directly to his account but was told that was not possible.

He said: “My biggest concern is they had taken this money erroneously three weeks ago and when I phoned up I got the impression that it happened all the time and still happens regularly.

“The don’t seem to have warned people about the machine. I imagine they are sitting on a lot of money.

“Anyone who uses Reading station car park regularly should check their bank account statements because they might be owed a fortune.”

APCOA, the company which manages the car park, did not respond by the time of going to press.